Please share any lesson plans and ideas from your week of writing camp. These may used by NWPNH camp leaders for future camps.Fiction activity: (used July 2010 at Plymouth camp)hand out 10 index cards to each person, have each person list 5 subjects on 5 separate cards and then 5 verbs on 5 separate cards
for example, subjects: waitress, bus driver, postal worker, actor, pilot and verbs: fell off the ship, went to the store, watched as the prisoner escaped, ate too much, had a bad dream. Shuffle all the subject cards together and have each person pick one card. Shuffle all the verb cards together and have each person pick on card. Put that sentence together and it has to be the last sentence of your story. "The waitress watched as the prisoner escaped."
Writing from Different Perspectives: Behind the Mask (Write On Program Plymouth Elementary School mini course April 2011) Heidi Freeman Essential Questions: How can writing help us understand other people's point of view? How can we express empathy and caring? What is the other side of the story and how does it benefit us to see things from more than one perspective? Goals: students become comfortable writing and sharing in this group students understand other points of view students write from other points of view students engage in conferencing, give feedback effectively with a partner and in a group Day 1 (2 hours)
introductions (name, grade level, experience with writing) hacky-sack name game (community building)
writing prompt: If you had to wear only one outfit for the rest of your lives, what would it be?
Mini course title: Behind the Mask
Persona: comes from a Greek word meaning “mask.” When we adopt a persona in our writing, we take on the mask of another identity. Writing from a perspective that is alien to us can help us to understand those who are different from us. (handout from Meg, “Teaching Writing for a Better World)
Explore masks from collection (Peking Opera masks) There is a story behind each character. Facial painting used to symbolize characters. different colors represent different personas featured in the opera: red: loyalty, bravery, justice, black: unyielding or stubborn, white: wicked and deceitful, blue & green: forthwright and testy tempers, yellow: tyrannical:
pick one mask, try it on, walk around: write down some observations after wearing the masks, try on the blank mask, observe reactions from others
create your own mask thinking about your own persona, use markers to make designs on the masks, words and images: activities you enjoy, sports, games, music, pets and books, share masks at end, let others try on your mask
How does wearing a different mask change your perspective of the world around you? (community building)
writing activity: Folk/fairy tales
List as many fairy or folk tales on board or chart paper as they can think of.
Read sections of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and I Am Cinderella's Step Sister by Catherine Min. Discuss point of view in each story. Students choose a well known fairy/folk tale that they know well and tell it from the evil characters' perspective: (story, poem, letter, newspaper article) share in partners, share in small groups, share in whole group give last few minutes to work on stories/poem more
Day 2 persona cafeteria activity (Teaching Writing for a Better World handout) write about an event from different points of view. Students choose a conflict they have experienced (or use cafeteria idea) and then start from their pov and move to others and then write about how changing perspectives changed their perception of the event (if it did...) Spend 5-10 minutes on each perspective, discuss changes, share one of the pieces? Jane Yolen's Encounter Encounter Book Trailer YouTubeWhat happens when only one version of the story gets told? Have students write an essay or story about the encounter from the perspective of one of the Europeans or one of the Taino. What was their life like prior to the encounter? What did they want and/or expect from the encounter? How did the encounter change their life and the lives of their people? http://schools.dekalb.k12.ga.us/clifton/files/2F38ADEB1F924CC093D57CEA64F9DB0E.pdf writing activity: have available a variety of photographs depicting people to select a persona, write about an event that person might have experienced revision, conferencing handout, practice peer/partner conferencing using handouts to write down what your partner says about your work and then what you want to say about your parnter's work on Post Its to help you remember when you revise your writing after conferencing. Each person read's their writing aloud and then your partner reads your writing back to you. Continue to work on masks Day 3 (Earth Day)
writing prompt: If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you change it? Writing activity: Return to photographs, choose one photo that the whole group writes about and share the different perspectives we all took on that one photograph. writing activity: take group outside, Read Children of the Earth...Remember by Schim Schimmel, ask group why I chose this book today, write from the point of view of the Earth, a tree, an animal, an ant, dirt, water, a lake, a stream, the air: What conflicts/difficulties would these things experience? How do they feel when their lives are in jeopardy?
for example, subjects: waitress, bus driver, postal worker, actor, pilot and verbs: fell off the ship, went to the store, watched as the prisoner escaped, ate too much, had a bad dream.
Shuffle all the subject cards together and have each person pick one card. Shuffle all the verb cards together and have each person pick on card. Put that sentence together and it has to be the last sentence of your story. "The waitress watched as the prisoner escaped."
Writing from Different Perspectives: Behind the Mask (Write On Program Plymouth Elementary School mini course April 2011) Heidi Freeman
Essential Questions:
How can writing help us understand other people's point of view?
How can we express empathy and caring?
What is the other side of the story and how does it benefit us to see things from more than one perspective?
Goals:
students become comfortable writing and sharing in this group
students understand other points of view
students write from other points of view
students engage in conferencing, give feedback effectively with a partner and in a group
Day 1 (2 hours)
introductions (name, grade level, experience with writing)
hacky-sack name game (community building)
writing prompt: If you had to wear only one outfit for the rest of your lives, what would it be?
Mini course title: Behind the Mask
Persona: comes from a Greek word meaning “mask.” When we adopt a persona in our writing, we take on the mask of another identity. Writing from a perspective that is alien to us can help us to understand those who are different from us. (handout from Meg, “Teaching Writing for a Better World)
Explore masks from collection (Peking Opera masks) There is a story behind each character. Facial painting used to symbolize characters. different colors represent different personas featured in the opera: red: loyalty, bravery, justice, black: unyielding or stubborn, white: wicked and deceitful, blue & green: forthwright and testy tempers, yellow: tyrannical:
pick one mask, try it on, walk around: write down some observations after wearing the masks, try on the blank mask, observe reactions from others
create your own mask thinking about your own persona, use markers to make designs on the masks, words and images: activities you enjoy, sports, games, music, pets and books, share masks at end, let others try on your mask
How does wearing a different mask change your perspective of the world around you? (community building)
writing activity:
Folk/fairy tales
List as many fairy or folk tales on board or chart paper as they can think of.
Read sections of The True Story of the Three Little Pigs and I Am Cinderella's Step Sister by Catherine Min. Discuss point of view in each story.
Students choose a well known fairy/folk tale that they know well and tell it from the evil characters' perspective: (story, poem, letter, newspaper article)
share in partners, share in small groups, share in whole group
give last few minutes to work on stories/poem more
Day 2
persona cafeteria activity (Teaching Writing for a Better World handout) write about an event from different points of view. Students choose a conflict they have experienced (or use cafeteria idea) and then start from their pov and move to others and then write about how changing perspectives changed their perception of the event (if it did...) Spend 5-10 minutes on each perspective, discuss changes, share one of the pieces?
Jane Yolen's Encounter Encounter Book Trailer YouTubeWhat happens when only one version of the story gets told?
Have students write an essay or story about the encounter from the perspective of one of the Europeans or one of the Taino. What was their life like prior to the encounter? What did they want and/or expect from the encounter? How did the encounter change their life and the lives of their people?
http://schools.dekalb.k12.ga.us/clifton/files/2F38ADEB1F924CC093D57CEA64F9DB0E.pdf
writing activity: have available a variety of photographs depicting people to select a persona, write about an event that person might have experienced
revision, conferencing handout, practice peer/partner conferencing using handouts to write down what your partner says about your work and then what you want to say about your parnter's work on Post Its to help you remember when you revise your writing after conferencing. Each person read's their writing aloud and then your partner reads your writing back to you.
Continue to work on masks
Day 3 (Earth Day)
writing prompt: If you could change one thing in the world, what would it be and how would you change it?
Writing activity: Return to photographs, choose one photo that the whole group writes about and share the different perspectives we all took on that one photograph.
writing activity: take group outside, Read Children of the Earth...Remember by Schim Schimmel, ask group why I chose this book today, write from the point of view of the Earth, a tree, an animal, an ant, dirt, water, a lake, a stream, the air: What conflicts/difficulties would these things experience? How do they feel when their lives are in jeopardy?